Minerva and Miss Liberty Are Looking Eye to Eye

Published: June 21, 1998

To the Editor:

There's more to the story of Minerva than mentioned in your F.Y.I. column (''Long May She Wave,'' May 24).

The power of Emma Lazarus's poem, which gives the name ''Mother of exiles'' to the Statue of Liberty, obscures the intent of the gift from the people and Government of France. She is not placed facing out to sea, as is commonly believed, to welcome those seeking a new life; she faces the hills in Brooklyn where, according to the French deed of gift, the first blow was struck for liberty in modern times.

The Altar to Liberty, which includes the bronze statue of the goddess Minerva, commemorates the sacrifice of the Maryland Brigade in the first battle of the young United States, a month and a half after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Minerva and Miss Liberty are not merely waving to each other, they are, considering the elevation of the altar on Battle Hill in Green-Wood Cemetery, looking eye to eye.

For those who wish to pay homage to the patriots who gave their lives to save our nation at her birth, they could attend the events of Battle Week, beginning Aug. 22. These commemorations, tours and re-enactments conclude with a memorial at the altar in Green-Wood Cemetery at 2 P.M. on Sunday, Aug. 30. This remembrance is an annual event of the Committee to Commemorate the Battle of Long Island.

JOHN J. GALLAGHER

Park Slope, Brooklyn

The writer is the author of ''The Battle of Brooklyn, 1776'' (Sarpedon, Rockville Centre, N.Y., 1995).